How To Finish Your Attic Floor

You ll have to construct a wooden frame or sub floor with boards 16 inches apart to provide extra support for the floor.

How to finish your attic floor. Finished is important to remember when you re measuring an empty attic space. Flooring ceiling and wall materials and other elements will reduce headroom and floor space and it s the finished area that matters. The previous homeowner may have simply covered the joists with plywood to use the space for storage. If your attic joists won t bear the weight necessary to finish out a living space but the engineer cleared them to support floor decking for light storage you can install inch plywood or.

Most codes require a specified minimum amount of headroom and it s tough to meet this requirement when insulating a finished attic especially since most codes require insulation equal to r 38 or more. Once you have a permit install subfloor panels over the floor joists so you can lay down flooring. To meet all three goals insulating your finished attic ventilating the roof and maximizing headroom use a combination of dense batt insulation rigid foam sheeting and air chutes. The basic space requirements for a finished attic boil down to the sizes of the finished rooms.

In that sense finishing your attic can feel like stumbling across undiscovered land in your own home. The flooring can pave the way for you to be able to finish off the attic in the future and can help you access your attic by making it easier to walk. Attics with existing flooring. Note that you will need to check with your local licensing department about required permits or inspections.

Floor support attic floors generally need to be reinforced with additional joists and a subfloor. When space is limited sometimes there s nowhere to go but up. To floor an attic you ll need to install a sub floor for support before laying your plywood floor. Installing attic flooring in your unfinished attic will help you with storage problems.

Attic ventilation systems generally depend on the uninterrupted flow of air between vents located in the top of the roof and soffit vents which usually are at floor level. However finishing an attic comes with its own quirks expenses and tricks to maximize its value. First you ll need to measure the area you want to floor so you can calculate how much wood you ll require. Alternatively your attic may already have some sort of floor but this doesn t necessarily mean you can build rooms.